A 105-year-old Texas woman who worked a life of physical labor and mothered seven children revealed the secret to her longevity: bacon.

Im thinking it must be the preservatives. I bet she has seen alot of vegetarians come and go.

"When you meditate, don't send your mind outside. Don't fasten onto any knowledge at all. Whatever knowledge you've gained from books or teachers, don't bring it in to complicate things. Cut away all preoccupations, and then as you meditate let all your knowledge come from what's going on in the mind. When the mind is quiet, you'll know it for yourself. But you have to keep meditating a lot. When the time comes for things to develop, they'll develop on their own. Whatever you know, have it come from your own mind.http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/thai ... eleft.html

"When you meditate, don't send your mind outside. Don't fasten onto any knowledge at all. Whatever knowledge you've gained from books or teachers, don't bring it in to complicate things. Cut away all preoccupations, and then as you meditate let all your knowledge come from what's going on in the mind. When the mind is quiet, you'll know it for yourself. But you have to keep meditating a lot. When the time comes for things to develop, they'll develop on their own. Whatever you know, have it come from your own mind.http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/thai ... eleft.html

Every once in a while I google supercentenarians (living to 110 or higher) just to see who is on the current list and see if there are some things in common. Surprisingly (and perhaps disappointingly for some vegetarians) there is no one type of common diet found among the longest-living. Some eat plenty of veggies and very little animal protein while others eat quite a bit of animal protein. Perhaps the only thing they have in common is good genes, with several close relatives who also lived very long. A few other common things are; taking life easy, not getting too upset over things, an active life, but not overly strenuous (virtually no athletes or former athletes), and eating sweets. Many of the supercentenarians like chocolate and other sweets.

Besides good genes, maybe the best thing is just simply knowing how to enjoy life.

What is that quote from the Buddha about its better to live one day in the Dhamma than a century without it?Doing what we can to live a long and healthy life is good, but living our life with the Dhamma as our anchor and guide, is so much better.kind regards,

Ben

Learn this from the waters:in mountain clefts and chasms,loud gush the streamlets,but great rivers flow silently.

alan wrote:Eating sweets? Surely you jest. Junk food is the number one killer.

No joke. The typical supercentenarian enjoys sweets. I should add though, that they also tend to be on the thin side. Too much junk food can be a killer, especially for those overweight / obese, but for whatever reasons, the supercentenarians seem to enjoy them and it works for them. My great-grandfather was not a supercentenarian, but lived pretty long to the age of 97. He ate cookies for breakfast, a slice of pie for lunch and a small tv-dinner for the evening meal. He was very skinny.

Some examples:

Jeanne Louise Calment (France); current record holder for longest (verified) lived human to the age of 122.Ate 1 kilo of chocolate every week

Sarah Knauss (United States)119Enjoyed milk chocolate turtles (candy)

Kamato Hongo (Japan)116occasional snacks of brown sugar.

Christina **** (Australia)114“had an interest in her music and food, particularly chocolate cake"

He turns his mind away from those phenomena, and having done so, inclines his mind to the property of deathlessness: 'This is peace, this is exquisite — the resolution of all fabrications; the relinquishment of all acquisitions; the ending of craving; dispassion; cessation; Unbinding.' (Jhana Sutta - Thanissaro Bhikkhu translation)

I think, in the case of supercentenarians and perhaps more generally, we should be looking less at their diet and more of their lifestyle as a whole-- their philosophy, their responsibilities, their interests, their relationships, the way they manage stress, etc. It is my perception that the people who are most deeply satisfied with living are the ones who tend to live the longest lives.

Viscid wrote:I think, in the case of supercentenarians and perhaps more generally, we should be looking less at their diet and more of their lifestyle as a whole-- their philosophy, their responsibilities, their interests, their relationships, the way they manage stress, etc. It is my perception that the people who are most deeply satisfied with living are the ones who tend to live the longest lives.

Several studies of known clusters of very old people have come to this conclusion - Sicily, a Greek island at the far east of the Med, and (IIRC) somewhere in the Caucasus. The common factors were regular moderate exertion, mostly natural local foods, and stable close communities.